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Spirituality doesn’t necessarily mean religion, and we spent a long time thinking through what it meant for each individual. Thirteen different people in the group meant thirteen (often very) different perspectives – it made for an interesting session!

We also did some triad work relating to this topic. The take home message from the session really was that, as with similar issues, for us as helpers, we need to ensure that we present unconditional positive regard regardless of if a Speaker’s own perspectives differ from ours.

I’m representing this session with the butterfly stitch – the beauty and flight of the butterflies remind me of my connection to God, and to the amazing world around me 🙂 .

In Unit 9, we covered Ethics, with specific reference to the ethos of the care and power.

We spent a fair bit of time, firstly as a whole group and then in small groups, discussing the role of professionals in our lives. We discussed how we might have been conditioned to respond to professionals (be they teachers, police officers, ministers, doctors…), and if we still respond in a similar way. We also discussed the ways in which professionals might abuse that position of respect and responsibility. We concluded that respect in this context shouldn’t be granted as an automatic right, nor should it be obtained through fear, rather professionals must earn it through the respectful way in which they treat their clients.

Finally, we thought about how we should, in our own role as professional helpers, be treating those who come to see us. As with many caring professions, before we begin practicing, we will be asked to make a pledge and agree to a code of conduct.

To remind me of this, I’ve chosen to knit a section of coin stitch (aka pucker cable stitch) because typically in order to get money we must work to earn it!

In Unit 8, we spent some time learning about the Cognitive Behavioural Approach.

CBT is quite different from the Person Centred Approach we are most familiar with. It is a much more structured approach, with its focus being on the achieving the desired outcome, rather than working through the problem. The Speaker will often have “homework” to do – exercises to work on at home, in between therapy sessions. It is a useful technique for helping people struggling with the effects of faulty thought processes, or irrational beliefs.

To represent this approach, I have chosen to knit a section of Broken Rib Stitch – to remind me of the faulty (broken) thinking that CBT is often used to help.

Tech details

At the joining edge, I continued the normal pattern of SSSK (slip, slip, slip knit) to attach the knitting to the body of the shawl. On the alternate row, the first stitch is slipped.

March has flown by – with all the snow delays, the second half of this module has felt very disjointed.

The focus of Unit 7 was Genograms. These are similar to a family tree, but can also contain information about illness, type of relationship, any traumatic events, and any other relevant information. Genograms can be a useful tool to help someone identify patterns in their wider family which may be affecting them. It’s especially useful in the case of a person who has a complex family history.

To represent this, I designed a tree, to remind me of the family tree structure of the genogram.

I’m back, after something of a hiatus – Central Scotland was snowed-in last week, resulting in the course being cancelled last Wednesday, and again on Saturday. As a result, we’re now a little behind, and some topics in the remainder of the module will probably happen slightly out of sequence.

As I’ve mentioned before, at the end of each module we have to submit a self-reflective essay, and give a presentation to the rest of the group. For this module, the essay is somewhat different – we are required to record a twenty minute triad session, with ourselves as Listener. We then transcribe a five minute section of this session, and write a reflection based on our performance. So on Wednesday this week, we spent the entire session in our triads making these recordings!

Representing this, I’ve made a small circle and a large circle, each with a centre, reminding me of a cassette tape – remember those?!

Tech details:

This was another turning point on the pattern, so on the penultimate row of this block I knitted the following to create the increase section:

K to 4st before end. Turn; P to end. *K to 4 st before gap. Turn; P to end.* Rep from * to * until only 4 stitches remain. Knit across the row, closing the gaps as you go.

Continuing the theme of the Psychodynamic perspective, in this unit we were thinking about Self-Awarenes and The Significance of Past Experience. We discussed the ways in which our own life experiences can influence us when using our counselling skills, and spent some time thinking about when it might be appropriate to take a step back from practising counselling.

We then took some time to reflect upon our own life, and created a timeline with significant life events from our own lives. We drew a line in the centre of the page, then put positive life events above the line and negative life events below the line. The distance from the line in either direction reflected the significance of the event. After creating our own timelines, we were then able to discuss them with a partner in the context of the Erik Erikson’s psychosocial developmental stages.

In triad work, we chose one significant negative event from our adult lives, and spoke about it and the effect it had on us.

Reflecting this in my project, I’ve created a horizontal line with several perpendicular lines of different heights, on either side of the line, which represents the timeline we worked on in this unit, and to remind myself of the influences in my own life.

This week served as an introduction to the Psychodynamic Perspective. We spent some time discussing Freud, and the history of the psychodynamic perspective. In essence, this perspective emphasises that much of our behaviour is determined by our unconcious – that our thoughts and feelings as adults, have their root in our childhood experiences. As a result of this, parts of our unconcious mind can be in conflict with parts of our concious mind, which creates in us feelings of anxiety. In order to mitigate these feelings of anxiety, we might employ a variety of different defence mechanisms (such as repression, compensation, denial, humour, intellectualisation, rationalisation, projection, and many others).

During this unit, we took some time to reflect upon some of the defence mechanisms we use. To represent this, and to remind me of this approach, I created a simple pattern in my knitting which reminded me of chain mail!

Tech details:

In the original pattern, there is an increase block at either edge of the shawl, and also on either side of both markers. So, on the second row of this block I knitted the following to create the increase section:

K to 4st before end. Turn; P to end. *K to 4 st before gap. Turn; P to end.* Rep from * to * until only 4 stitches remain. Knit across the row, closing the gaps as you go.

After the increase block, I created a simple chain mail pattern by repeating the following two rows:

This week we were looking at the Humanistic and Existential Perspectives: The Person-Centred Approach to counselling. In a nutshell, both perspectives are trying to enable individuals to reach their fullest potential. While the Humanistic theory suggests that human beings are constantly striving to become the best version of themselves that they can possibly be; the Existential theory says that human beings are searching for the meaning of life. Both theories recognise that a person’s experience of the world is their own source of truth.

This week we focussed on one particular aspect of these approaches, namely that of “conditions of worth”. Carl Rogers (the “father” of the person-centred approach) said in 1959 that “When significant others in the person’s world (usually parents) provide positive regard that is conditional, rather than unconditional, the person introjects the desired values, making them his/her own, and acquires “conditions of worth””.

We spent some time during the session exploring our own “conditions of worth”, which was a somewhat enlightening exercise 🙂 .

In terms of using the Person-Centred approach, we are taught how to be truly attentive, to truly listen to that person; to try to really understand their perspective, and get a sense of their understanding of the world. When this is done effectively, with genuineness and unconditional positive regard, the Speaker will then feel valued.

So, with both these aspects in mind, I’m choosing to represent this week’s learning with a recognised symbol of value – a diamond!

Tech details:

Firstly, the pattern for the diamond:

In the original pattern, there is an increase block at either edge of the shawl, and also on either side of both markers. So, on the penultimate row of this block I knitted the following to create the increase section:

K to 4st before end. Turn; P to end. *K to 4 st before gap. Turn; P to end.* Rep from * to * until only 4 stitches remain. Knit across the row, closing the gaps as you go.

This week, we began with an introduction to some of the different theoretical models in the counselling field, and to consider which models were most appealing to us.

At the end of the module, we took part in a quiz based on our values and beliefs, which would give us an indication which model best fit our values and beliefs. Our answers were then scored out of 100 in three separate ways, giving us values for each of x, y, and z. These scores were then drawn on a graph, and the three points joined up to form a triangle. The direction the triangle pointed then gave an indication of which model best fitted us.

As you can see from my triangle, my scores were roughly similar so, although the inner triangle shows a slight bias towards the cognitive behavioural approach, it doesn’t really “point” in any given direction. This suggests I am most comfortable with an integrative or eclective approach, which means that I don’t believe that there’s a one-size fits all model; that everyone will respond differently, and it’s about find the best approach for than individual. This result doesn’t surprise me at all 🙂 .

For my knitting this week, I have knitted my quiz graph – a large triangle, with a roughly equal triangle inside it.

Module Three is going to be a bit different than the previous two modules, with an emphasis on self-awareness, and the awareness of self while using a counselling approach, in addition to learning about some of the theoretical perspectives used in the counselling field. We will be looking at the Humanistic/Existential Perspective, the Psychodynamic Perspective, and the Cognitive Behavioural Approach.

During Unit 1, we took some time to reflect on the previous two modules, and to discuss some of the ups and downs, and what we had learned. It felt like a settling-in to where we are now, and ended with a look to the coming weeks, and the direction in which we plan to go.

In terms of knitting, it’s time for a new colour!! And, as with the difference between this module and the previous modules, I’m going to change the way I’m knitting the pattern. I’m going to follow the same structure in terms of row counts, increases and so forth, but I’m going to apply each unit’s chunk of knitting to the edge, rather than knitting long rows.

For this week’s pattern, I was thinking that I’m feeling quite excited about beginning Module 3, so I’ve created a firework to represent that excitement 🙂 !

Tech details:

To maintain the look of the 3 edge stitches, I began by casting on with the Channel Island cast-on, which creates a beaded edge, emulating the edge of the garter stitch border. Then I worked 3 rows of K1, P1 rib, ensuring that the purls lined up with the beads of the cast-on edge. At the end of each where it meets the body of the shawl, I worked a SSSK, to join the block of knitting on to the main body of the shawl, and maintain the correct stitch count.

Rows 1-3: P1, K1.
Row 4: (YO, K2tog) to end.
Row 5: Knit.

In the original pattern, there is an increase block at either edge of the shawl, and also on either side of both markers. So, on row six, I worked several short rows to account for this increase.

Row 6: K to 4st before end. Turn; P to end. *K to 4 st before gap. Turn; P to end.* Rep from * to * until only 4 stitches remain. Knit across the row, closing the gaps as you go.